Stress Signals
by mew-tsubaki
Summary: A bad week that gets worse, best friends who lack sympathy, and a Tanaka who may or may not be flirting with him—all in a day's (or two) work for Captain Ennoshita Chikara.
**Stress Signals**

A Haikyuu! oneshot

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The _Haikyuu!_ characters belong to Furudate Haruichi-sensei, not to me. More Ennotana ridiculousness just because. c: Read, review, and enjoy!

\- ^-^3

This…had to be…the week from hell.

It wasn't that Ennoshita hadn't known what the week's schedule looked like. No, he'd known for at least two—no, was it three?—weeks that this week was going to be awful. His and Narita's partner presentation in chemistry was on Thursday, and they had everything set—the paper was done, the equations balanced. They just needed to practice presenting a few times and they'd be good to go.

But then last week his history teacher had informed them there'd be a test next week—what was now this week—and it was on Friday. Worse still, Takeda-sensei had been less than thrilled with the most recent pop quiz results in his senior English classes, so they'd have another one tomorrow. On top of all of this, Captain Ennoshita still had to maintain the new practice schedule for the volleyball club. And it was only Monday.

Ennoshita wished their former captain could send him help. Alas, that was nothing but a pipe dream.

"You look like hell," Tanaka unhelpfully pointed out as they made their way to the gym right from the clubroom.

The brunet pulled a face at his vice-captain. "Thanks, Tanaka. Please, don't hold anything back."

"No, I mean—" Tanaka frowned and held the gym door open for him. "The week's only just begun and you look as though you've already been put through the wringer." His frown deepened, and he furrowed his brow. "You okay?"

Ennoshita paused and basked a little in Tanaka's concern. He was glad he'd chosen Tanaka as his vice-captain. Tanaka had really grown last year, and Ennoshita had taken a chance on a gut feeling that Tanaka would prove himself to be a responsible vice-captain since Tanaka actually handled the first years—who were now senpai themselves—extremely well. Sure, he wasn't Sugawara, but Ennoshita wasn't Sawamura, either. They ran their ship a little tighter (and probably more loudly, too), but they ran it well. More importantly, Ennoshita had learned it was okay to depend on others more, and Tanaka was getting the hang of being the dependable one.

"I can run things today, if you want," Tanaka offered, seemingly reading Ennoshita's mind. He pushed his sweater's sleeves up to his elbows and grinned, hands on hips. "You know me—I love barking at the others."

"No, that's okay," Ennoshita assured him as Yachi, Yamaguchi, and Tsukishima arrived. "The last thing I need is for you to get caught up in Hinata's exaggerations to the freshmen."

"Spoilsport," Tanaka quipped, and he playfully stuck his tongue out at Ennoshita, but at least the latter laughed and momentarily forgot what'd been worrying him in the first place.

\- ^-^3

Telling someone they looked like hell was Tanaka's way of conveying that someone had dark circles under their eyes, Ennoshita knew. Come Tuesday, he wished he _only_ looked like hell.

Tuesday morning, Ennoshita thought he noticed a spot appear on his chin. He stared at it in the bathroom mirror until his father asked if something was wrong, which only made Ennoshita blurt out a false "Yup, I'm good." He finished his bathroom routine, ran back to his room to get dressed, hurried through breakfast, and hustled to school.

Then third period came and Takeda-sensei passed out the pop quiz. Which Ennoshita had forgotten about.

"I absolutely _hate_ today," he groused to Narita and Tanaka on the rooftop at lunchtime. Of course, his words were muffled since he'd all but buried his face between his knees in his bento, but his friends understood him nevertheless.

"I'm surprised you forgot about the quiz," Narita stated between mouthfuls of rice.

"Not helping."

"Sorry, sorry!"

Kinoshita and Nishinoya arrived to join them then. "What's got him so down in the dumps?" Kinoshita inquired, dropping down on Ennoshita's other side from Narita.

"Bad quiz and a zit," Narita replied plainly before continuing to eat.

Ennoshita picked his head up then, looking between the two of them with narrowed eyes. "Thanks for having some sympathy, guys."

"Is it true, though?" Nishinoya chimed in after eating an inhumanly large bite of his sandwich. The libero leaned forward, pushing Tanaka out of the way and getting right up in Ennoshita's face to have a look. "Usually you've got a great complexion! So even Chikara has a break-out every now and then?"

It was hard to be annoyed with Nishinoya when his blunt honesty was accompanied by an equally blunt compliment, so Ennoshita sighed and half rolled his eyes at the tiniest of his friends.

"Don't worry about it," Tanaka said, waving his coffee milk box at Ennoshita. "It happens to everyone. And since it came so quickly, it'll go quickly, I'm sure." He grinned, and Ennoshita tried to believe in his enthusiasm and sincerity.

The others echoed Tanaka's words, though Ennoshita still found them hard to agree with. Nevertheless, he nodded his thanks at Tanaka.

His vice-captain winked back. Not an unusual sight for him, but it'd been a while since Ennoshita had seen it, and it made him smile, just a bit.

Tanaka was right. The blemish would vanish soon enough, the week would be over before Ennoshita knew it, and Ennoshita would be able to breathe more comfortably next week. There was no need to worry.

\- ^-^3

Or maybe there was.

"I'm becoming a vain person, aren't I?" Ennoshita thought aloud Wednesday evening as the seniors supervised the juniors cleaning the gym. Well, most of the seniors. Nishinoya had joined in, challenging Hinata and Kondo, the first-year libero, to a broom race.

Coach Ukai was within earshot and gave Ennoshita a funny look, but the captain gave him an apologetic bow of his head to let him know he hadn't meant for Ukai to comment.

Still, Narita and Kinoshita were right beside him, and they _did_ comment. "It's just a zit," Narita reminded him, still doing some stretches to cool down. He sounded weary of hearing Ennoshita's whining day in and day out, but Ennoshita knew that was just Narita's luck of the draw, sharing the same classroom since first year.

Kinoshita snickered at them and poked Ennoshita in the side. "Unless…it's _not_ just a zit," he said far too happily.

Both Ennoshita and Narita gave him a look. "What are you getting at, Kinoshita?" Narita asked warily.

The blond gestured dramatically. "Isn't it obvious? Ennoshita caring so much about his looks? Perhaps _someone_ has finally set his eyes on someone?" He waggled his eyebrows at Ennoshita. "So spill. Do you have a crush?"

Ennoshita's face flushed with heat on response, but he gritted his teeth. "No!" he hissed. He pointed both to the spot on his chin and the new one that had appeared on his left cheek. "But these damn things are painful!"

Kinoshita sighed, clearly unsatisfied with Ennoshita's reaction. "Man, Ennoshita, live your almost-eighteen-year-old life once in a while. Indulge in a little fantasy every now and then."

Ennoshita gave his friend a look, but that only made the blond snicker again until Narita judged Ennoshita might really smack him for once and so tugged Kinoshita away. Ennoshita looked further up the wall, to where Tanaka had stood, quiet during all of this. He raised a single eyebrow.

Tanaka walked over to Ennoshita, shaking his head at him but not denying his own amusement by letting the ends of his lips curve up slightly. "They _are_ right, you know. You don't need to stress out about your face when you're stressing out about everything else."

The captain released a low, slow exhale. "I don't know how Daichi-san did it…"

"Well, he didn't try to do everything by himself," Tanaka reminded him, bumping his left shoulder against Ennoshita's right one. "Though I bet it helped that he and Suga-san were in the same class. Sorry for being one of the common folk, Mr. College Prep Class," he added, but with mirth in his light brown eyes.

Ennoshita shook his head, leaning a little against Tanaka's arm for support. "No, you help keep me focused here, which helps a lot, trust me." And he meant it. Yes, they'd only gotten three first years to join, which helped since they'd just had three members graduate, but there were always team dynamics to smooth out. Kondo had been an instant fit with the rest of the team, and Akimoto seemed to be warming up to everyone, too, partly with Kondo's influence. But Akimoto had been both a wing spiker and a setter in the past, so there was Kageyama's desire to challenge every setter he came in contact with to handle, and Ozaki was a bit of an obstinate middle blocker, not too unlike how Tsukishima had been last year. Plus, leading the team was very different from just being a part of it. Ennoshita understood well now why captains needed vice-captains.

"But Kinoshita's right, Ennoshita," Tanaka said, drawing the brunet from his thoughts. He waited for Ennoshita to look at him. "Calm down some, Ennoshita. Even if your face looks like—like—like rock candy tomorrow, you'll be fine."

"… _pfft_. Rock candy? Really?" Ennoshita snorted at Tanaka's lame example.

Tanaka reddened and flailed his arms while Ennoshita's shoulders shook with laughter. "You know what I mean!" He breathed, dispelling his fluster. "But, seriously. You. Look. Fine, Ennoshita." He punctuated his last sentence with light pokes to the spot on Ennoshita's chin, the spot on Ennoshita's cheek, and the tip of Ennoshita's nose.

In response, Ennoshita zipped up his club jacket and pulled the collar up around the bottom half of his face, trying to hide the blemishes.

That only made Tanaka laugh as he walked away, motioning for Nishinoya to grab a broom for him, too. But he turned around for a quick second and mouthed three syllables to Ennoshita, all the while pantomiming pulling his jacket collar up much in the same way as Ennoshita had done.

Ennoshita normally would've grumbled back at Tanaka for teasing him—he and Kinoshita always seemed to be teasing him—and he would've talked back this time.

If it hadn't been for Tanaka calling him "cute" just now.

Surely…that had been a mistake…right? Tanaka must've mouthed something else just now. Well, one thing was for certain:

If Ennoshita hadn't been self-conscious before, he sure as hell was now.

\- ^-^3

All the while reviewing for the chemistry presentation and even when trying to fall asleep Wednesday night, Ennoshita tried chocking it up to his imagination playing with him. Luckily, that provided him with some decent focus, and he and Narita did well on their presentation Thursday morning.

But, throughout Thursday, Ennoshita believed he misread every gesture, every word of Tanaka's. And all because of what had transpired the day before.

Still, was it really his imagination? Or maybe he just hadn't noticed it before? Because…no…no way… There was no way that Tanaka's smile lingered when they talked. And Tanaka kept telling him he looked fine whenever Ennoshita worried aloud what his stress was doing to him externally. And Tanaka kept appearing at the right times for Ennoshita to lean on—at lunch, in the clubroom, during practice.

And those winks. Those stupid, ridiculous winks. Ennoshita rolled his eyes at the memory of them while he took his history test Friday afternoon, blasting through the questions and glad that yet another thing finally had gone right for him this week.

At the end of the day on Friday, even, Ennoshita was walking across the courtyard with Narita to get to the clubroom when he spied Tanaka talking to some classmates in the outdoor corridor. He didn't expect Tanaka to turn his way, but Tanaka did nevertheless. And, this time, Tanaka winked and blew him a theatrical kiss.

Ennoshita couldn't help it: He laughed. Narita gave him an odd look, but Ennoshita didn't bother trying to explain how Tanaka had been cheering him up.

…ah.

The smile he'd just had while laughing lessened as things clicked into place for Ennoshita. He'd been dumb, hadn't he? Interpreting things as mixed signals on Tanaka's part… He was just cheering Ennoshita up, not…not _flirting_. Friends called each other "cute" sometimes, right? Ennoshita was sure it happened. Kageyama had called Hinata small and cute before, he was certain of it.

Ennoshita calmed down as practice commenced. His head felt screwed on right on his shoulders as he spoke with Yachi and Takeda-sensei about arranging a practice match with Fukurodani, and he felt better knowing he had his captain responsibilities to focus on.

There was no time to worry about unnecessary things, to muse about things that weren't there. Besides, had he been hoping to misread Tanaka's actions? Sure, Tanaka was a charmer and easy on the eyes, in Ennoshita's opinion, but Tanaka was his _friend_ and his _vice-captain_ , and Ennoshita simply didn't think about these things. Tanaka was just over-friendly and nothing more, and Ennoshita wanted Tanaka that way and nothing more.

In a way, that made it easier to let Tanaka's magic work on him and brighten his mood. Between all the winks and reminders that Ennoshita was "cute as ever"—okay, so Tanaka _had_ called him "cute" before, there was no denying that now—Ennoshita just went along with it. Even when the blemishes turned larger and redder and a third, tinier one popped up by the one already on his chin come Saturday morning, Ennoshita's worries dissipated as the half day came and went and the week finally, _thankfully_ ended.

"No practice today—what should we do?" Kinoshita asked as he and Narita joined Ennoshita at the shoe lockers Saturday afternoon.

Narita tapped his toes on the ground and put his indoor shoes away, readjusting his bag straps on his shoulder as he turned to his friends. "We could catch a matinee," he suggested.

Ennoshita shook his head. "Maybe another time… After this past week, I kind of want to go home and dive right into bed."

Kinoshita clucked his tongue at him and linked his arm through Narita's. "Fine, fine… Then we'll go see a movie by ourselves and tell you _all_ about it and ruin the ending for you."

"We will?!" Narita spluttered, but he let himself be carried away on the tide of Kinoshita's spontaneity as Ennoshita sent them off with a smile.

"Oh, good, you didn't go home yet."

Ennoshita turned at the sound of Tanaka's voice, and he fell into step with the other teen as they left the school. "No, I'm on my way there, though. Where's Nishinoya?"

"He told Kondo he'd teach him Rolling Thunder behind the school at the end of the day, and Hinata's there with them, trying to learn it still." Tanaka groaned. "It's as if Hinata forgot he's best as our decoy…"

"No, I think he gets it now." Ennoshita glanced at Tanaka with an entertained expression. "Them, I'm not worried about."

Tanaka's eyes crinkled when he grinned back at the captain. "Good. I'm glad. Actually, you seem a lot better, now that the week's over."

Ennoshita nodded. He loosely motioned to his face. "I'm sure this'll clear up soon, too."

"Yup." Tanaka stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked a little closer to Ennoshita's side. "So…you really just want to go home? With the weather this nice and still plenty of the day left?"

"Kinoshita tried to get me to join him and Narita for a movie, but…nah. I'm pretty exhausted after everything."

"So you didn't want to see a movie with them?"

"Nope."

"Wanna see a movie with me?"

Ennoshita almost automatically replied in the negative…but then he caught Tanaka's eye. And he saw no hint of teasing in his vice-captain's gaze. Wait.

He _hadn't_ been misreading things at all?!

The captain found his voice, his volume rising along with the temperature of his face. "Wha…? _You're not supposed to ask me out when I look like this!_ "

"Oh?"

"Not when I'm running on maybe, I don't know, twenty hours of sleep for the entire week!" Ennoshita could feel his heart pounding in his chest as his voice grew shrill, and he knew he had about a billion other things to exclaim about, but these two were at the forefront of his mind.

And Tanaka, bless his innocent soul, just stared back at Ennoshita, maybe just a teensy bit confused. He even cocked his head to one side as he asked, "I'm not?" He said it so honestly that Ennoshita didn't know what to think.

" _No!_ " he yelped after an odd beat.

"But you look fine to me."

"Exactly!" Ennoshita blinked and did a double-take. "Wait. _What?!_ "

Tanaka flung an arm around Ennoshita's shoulder. "Zits or no, bags under your eyes or no, believing me when I call you cute or not—"

Ennoshita furrowed his brow and squirmed with Tanaka's arm around his shoulders. "Tanaka… I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to be totally honest with me…"

"Of course."

He turned and faced Tanaka, ignoring how they were nearly nose to nose with Tanaka so close like this. "You _do_ realize I'm a guy, right? Not Shimizu-san? I'm your captain. Your fellow _teammate_."

"Yeah. And?"

"Did you hit your head?" Frankly, Ennoshita wasn't certain what to think anymore.

Tanaka chuckled and leaned forward—causing Ennoshita's heart to jump into his mouth—but he only rested his forehead against Ennoshita's. "Let me tell you a story?"

How could he refuse? Ennoshita did his best to nod, and he kept his eyes on Tanaka's to show he was paying attention.

"Okay. So." Tanaka paused briefly to lead them over to the side of the road before he continued. "So," he repeated. "I know I fawned over Kiyoko-san. I won't deny that a pretty girl might still derail the thoughts of Tanaka Ryuunosuke," he added, a little dramatically. "But…there's a lot to be said for admiration."

Ennoshita frowned. He didn't like where this was going. He knew plenty about Tanaka's admiration for Shimizu.

"You've really come into your own, Ennoshita. Stepping up to the plate, managing it all—expecting a lot from me, even," Tanaka continued, chuckling again. "And I feel as though I can take on more responsibility. I mean, I was a pretty great senpai to Hinata and the others to begin with—"

The brunet couldn't help rolling his eyes.

"—but I…" He let his words trail off. "Well, I feel as though I'm kind of living up to their respect now, y'know?" He cocked his head to one side again, but this time he was smiling that wolfish grin of his. "Plus, once I had this stray thought at the start of the year that, 'Hey, Ennoshita's also hella pretty,' and decided that I was okay with thinking of you that way, I felt a little more open to other avenues."

Ennoshita narrowed his eyes at him, skeptical. "So…you're bi?"

"Dunno. I just like what I like. Like who I like." Tanaka laughed, so lighthearted about everything that it was hard to think he might've been playing Ennoshita or lying. Plus, he was probably still a little too slow-witted to construct such an elaborate scheme.

The captain bit his lower lip, strangely happy and undoubtedly confused all at once. "…okay," he breathed after several seconds' deliberation. Or had a minute passed already? He didn't know. He wasn't sure if he could determine which way was up anymore, either.

"Okay what?"

"I…might want to see a movie with you. As in, on a date. But not today." He turned his face towards Tanaka's shoulder since the collar of his school uniform didn't come up enough to hide his embarrassment.

"Sorry. Too fast?" There was amusement in the shaven-haired boy's tone, and Ennoshita could picture that ever-confident grin on Tanaka's face even without looking at him.

Ennoshita nodded. "But I'll give it a shot."

"Yes!"

"On one condition," Ennoshita mumbled as he turned away from Tanaka's shoulder and they continued walking home, and he noticed Tanaka had oh-so-casually slipped his hand into Ennoshita's. And Ennoshita kind of like how comfy and warm the touch was—much better than just leaning on one another during practice. Hmm. Maybe he could grow accustomed to this.

"Name it."

"No calling me 'cute.' It's embarrassing…"

Tanaka guffawed at the tomato shade Ennoshita turned just at bringing it up. "Yeah… I can probably do anything you ask of me, Ennoshita. But _that_? That's not gonna happen."

Well. So much for no longer having anything to worry about….

\- ^-^3

 **Yup. More Ennotana vomit. ;P Honestly, I just like having Ennoshita all red and everything, though I like Tanaka the same way… I just…ARGH. Cuties. Ah, and those are 3 OCs I've used in some other fics, if the names sounded familiar to you. c: Frankly, I'm just weak for Tanaka being the biggest flirt and actually pulling it off, especially with Ennoshita. -w-**

 **Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other [** _ **HQ!**_ **] fics, too, if you liked this! (There are deffo some less ridiculous Ennotanas I've written, trust me! *lol*)**

 **-mew-tsubaki ;P**


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